The present invention relates to an apparatus for filling bottles or similar containers with a liquid filling material from a tank.
With one apparatus of this general type, U.S. Pat. No. 3,799,219, Gerhard Uth et al, which utilizes a filling element that has no filling tube, a first gas path communicates on the one hand with a gas chamber that is formed over the level of the filling material in the interior of an annular tank of the filling machine that is not completely filled with the liquid filling material, and on the other hand, controlled via a control valve, communicates with a first gas channel that leads into the interior of the bottle that is to be filled. This first gas channel is formed in a gas tube or tube-like shaft that carries the valve body of a liquid flow valve. Pressurization of the container that is to be filled is effected via the gas path and the gas channel.
This known apparatus also has a second gas path that leads to a return gas or residual gas chamber that is provided in common for all of the filling elements of the filling machine; this gas chamber communicates with the atmosphere via an orifice or flow control means. Furthermore, this second gas path is in constant communication with a second gas chamber that is also formed in the tube-like shaft of the valve body and is open at the lower end of this shaft, which projects beyond the valve body. The second gas channel surrounds a probe that is provided in the shaft for determining the filling height.
Although with this known apparatus for controlling the gas paths only a single control valve is provided, this apparatus nonetheless has certain drawbacks. For example the known apparatus, in addition to the necessity of having to have two separate gas channels in the shaft of the valve body, moreover also has a relatively complicated and expensive construction. A further drawback of the known apparatus is that a common actuating mechanism is provided for the control valve and for the liquid flow valve, thereby greatly limiting the possibility for diversified controls or control processes. In addition, the functional elements of the control valve, and in particular also the valve body of this control valve, are not very accessible.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to improve an apparatus of the aforementioned general type such that while maintaining the fundamental advantages of the heretofore known apparatus, the drawbacks thereof are avoided, while at the same time providing a simplified construction yet improved control possibilities.